Monday, September 17, 2012

Having had the privilege of spending a few days in Paris
this summer, I made a point of heading to the Latin Quarter to walk down the
hallowed halls of one of the world’s oldest and arguably most prestigious
educational institutions.Yet, arriving
in early August, we found the Sorbonne closed.And I mean really closed.Like
haul up the drawbridge, lock the gate, nobody’s home, closed.I couldn’t even get a sweatshirt!Closed!And while I admired the beauty of the architecture and its commanding
presence on rue Victor Cousin, I reflected on the locked gate.

Might this be a metaphor for ‘old school’
education.Traditional learning.And could I possibly be feeling the rejection
and disappointment that comes with this lack of access?Without overdramatizing (I mean the French
professors have a right to their August holidays, afterall), it was an image
that I juxtaposed with the affordances of today’s technology, where the boundaries
of both time and space have evaporated.

Embarking on a new semester with Humber College's Bachelor of PR students, I am
pleased to report that our student interaction didn’t stop over the summer.With a team of students across the country,
through email, wikis and Facebook we created an orientation event for new
students that incorporated toilet paper, chocolate bar medals (Twix is gold) and
Twitter.Planning the event was possible
because we didn’t have to worry about getting together at the same time in the
same place.And once we were together,
we engaged our broader community in the fun through tweets and photos.

I realized that, as a social media professor in a PR
program, I must continue to challenge myself to find ways to connect with
students beyond our classrooms.Afterall, learning doesn’t stop when the campus doors are shut and the
lights are off.

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About Me

Teaching social media to college students, studying social media literacy in my PhD, and researching social media practices led me to want to Make Meaning in Media, hence, my blog was called mediacubed.